So more guns in school is the answer? perhaps state provided guns to students so we avoid economic inequality in acess to weaponary? This is the kind of country you want to live in is it?You ever notice how these things happen at places where guns are prohibited?
Did you notice these regular gun massacres only happens in countries that have widespread access to guns?
In any case, a rare, random event is no reason to limit access to guns. home intrusions, armed robberies and attempted rapes happen all the time and often they are thwarted by citizens with guns. Twice in our town in the past month, in fact.
That's not what crime statistics show. It would show up as reduced rates of rape, home intrusion and armed robberies in USA versus countries without guns, but, infact the rates are higher for those crimes in USA as well, what is your explaination for that ?
More guns = less crime.
http://www.davekopel...un-Violence.htm
The only valid scientific comparison is between countries with/without guns, as guns are the dependent variable. This article is more non-scientific nonsense, people quoting statistics with no understanding of them, luckily for them, most readers don't understand them either.
To disprove the statistical correlation shown between guns and crime, the gun lobby need to explain the country differential with valid statistical arguments. The one that is often thrown out there is the USA population size is higher and that maybe causal. But, infact, anyone who's actually studied crime knows its population density that matters not size, and English cities have the highest density in the world yet one of the lowest gun death rates, so that argument is invalid.
Lastly, as regards the generalized arguments that 'well, other things can kill', I guess the theory is if you take guns away people will start killing each other with whatever.
That is easily disproven as false, as again the crime statistics country comparison shows. If that were the case, other countries would show high homicide rate's via all these other 'weapons', but they don't.
The only other valid explaination so far presented is there is something unique about Americans in comparison to other cultures, and so American would act differently, take their guns away and Molotov cocktails murder rate will go ballistic (unlike any other country)...could be, but if so that means the population itself is homicidal, and therefore surely control of deadly weapons would be even more a priority?
Mark.
Edited by entropy, 23 April 2007 - 05:03 PM.